"Oh I see," a playful grin spread across his face like wildfire, "Well the only way to escape would be to outrun me." Hayden knew what that look meant and set off running through the maze like garden. The soft earth sprang beneath her feet so she was almost bouncing off each step rather than running. She heard him shout from a distance,
"I'm coming!" She knew he'd find her in no time with how she was laughing. Determined to make this a longer race than last time she pushed on, twisting and turning with as much speed as she could muster. She kept running, having no idea where she was actually going until something caught her eye; a tree.
But this was no ordinary tree, it was huge and glowing. Hayden wondered how that was possible, a blue glow seemed to pulsate from the leaves and through the vines that wrapped themselves tightly around the trunk until descending into the ground into the roots, lighting the ground around it. She stood motionless, staring at the spectacle that was in front of her eyes, "Curious," she whispered.
Something told her to get closer to it, something pulling her towards it. She studied the movement of its glow and before she realised what was happening, something strange occurred. The tree seemed to warp, its branches twisting into different shapes to form an archway. Ignoring her heads protests, she took a step forwards. The ground surrounding her feet sank away and she fell.
When she opened her eyes, the world around her had changed. She was no longer surrounded by the beauty of nature and the whimsical games of chase, but locked away alone in a room.
She was lost and mistaken as it wasn't a room but a cell.
She tried to get to her feet but fell to her knee's; a weight was crushing her, feeding off of her life force, weakening her. Each of her arms shackled to the wall, the shackles digging and biting into her wrists, the chain was long she crawled to the door to be stopped inches short by the tug on her wrists. The more she tried the more she noticed how hot her surroundings were getting, in a few short minutes she felt like she was trapped in the middle of a heat wave.
What felt like hours passed, her body was covered with dirt and sweat from relentlessly trying to escape from this place, her body aching under the pressure of being in the cell. That's when she heard the cell door open and someone's footsteps come close.
Craning her neck up she saw a figure, but she wasn't afraid, she felt a new confidence and she felt anger towards this figure but kept it locked behind a cold facade, a sadistic smile crossed her face as the figure spoke, "Now you're ready to being!"
With a jolt she sat upright, she was still in bed. 'Just a dream, it was just a dream' she thought to herself.
Light flooded into the room as its curtains were thrown back to reveal the light of the day that was beginning. Golden rays shone across the marble floor onto Hayden who was still breathing heavy and noticed how sweaty she was from the dream.
She'd had the dream most nights ever since she was little, but could never figure out why it was the exactly the same every time.